Friday, July 31, 2009

Today is our 10 year anniversary!! WOW! Never thought I'd be a stay-at-home working mom with a 2.5 year old 10 years ago!! We made it to a huge milestone!! For the most part it's been smooth and easy sailing and lots of fun along the way. Jason is my best friend and we love our life together!! So here's to you babe! I LOVE YOU and I'm looking forward to many, many more years to come!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

This has been one crazy summer for me and I haven't had a chance to do much new art :( I had this LARGE canvas just sitting behind my easel for a few years and I decided to use black gesso on it (which I LOVE). I've been staring at the black canvas for a few weeks and decided to sketch something on it. This is what came out of my head in 5 minutes! I like it! Still lots more details to work on but I'm taking pictures of each stage to view the progress. I'm trying to take more risks with my art and not plan things out but just go with what comes out. It's a hard one for me sometimes which is so funny because I'm a very spontaneous person. What do you do that helps you get past your artistic blocks and planned out canvases? I could use some help in that area! I will continue to post progress photos. I still need a title but figure that will come once it's finished. So what do you think? I'd love to hear!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

So I got a tattoo today out of the blue! Actually I was at my eye appt. waiting to check out when my hubby texted me to say that there was a cancellation at the tattoo shop where I go and to call them! I was not expecting a tattoo today, I had to wait until Aug. 8th to get it done. I was thrilled when I found out. He was home sick today, if he hadn't been sick I would have had to pass on the appt. today. It all worked out the way it should have I think. This lovely fresh tattoo is in honor of my late Nana who passed away a few months ago. She loved strawberries and cardinals and there are 13 lily of the valley's as well which was her birthday and the same day she passed on her 89th birthday. This cardinal was based on a painting I did while she was sick. This painting is now hanging on my side of the bed where I can see it daily. While I was getting the tattoo done I could picture her looking down on me saying, "my Aimée!!" which she often said while laughing. I miss her dearly and can't wait to be reunited in Heaven with her some day. My wonderful tattoo artist is Kristen from In Living Color Tattoo! I'd work with her again in a heartbeat! She did my first tattoo as well. Just thought I'd share!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

This is something a bit different and not at all art related so please bear with me. My sister in law Becky came up with this great website the other day and I want to share it with blogland. If you have someone you know who could use this site PLEASE feel free to forward this blog post on and the website info. The below text was written by Becky. Please stop by her great new site and check it out. I'm planning on using it because I have stuff all over the place!! :) Enjoy!

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I don't think any parent will argue when I say that the greatest education you will ever get comes when you have children. For instance, finding out just how many seconds of a parent's inattention it takes for a toddler to empty a whole bottle of baby powder on the new laminate flooring. Or, just how much milk an infant's stomach can hold and then expel in a fantastic yet horrific manner. Or how much everything goes up in price the minute you slap the word infant on it. Or how time seems to bend once you have kids. And by that I mean that no matter how much "extra" time you give yourself to get you and the kids out the door, you will never, ever, make it on time. Or just how a small amount of baby poo with its distinct texture and odoriferousemanation can bring a 6 foot man of steel to his knees, wretching and gagging in mere seconds. Yes, being a parent is the most valuable education one will ever receive. As my children grow, my education continues. It dumbfounds me at how these tiny people can continuously amaze every day with what they've learned without me realizing they have learned it. It also amazes me at how today's baby industry reaches into our pockets, getting us to spend more and more on items that we have to have. How does one survive today without a top of the line car seat or a reclining high chair? Well you don't. You take out a loan, maybe a second mortgage, sell some blood, or get a hold of one of those gold refiners we see on TV all the time now. (Just don't tell your husband).

Having children is not cheap. It's the absolute most rewarding experience but it is not cheap. Just recently, my husband and I found ourselves in the not so unique (I'm assuming we aren't the first to have this issue) position of having two baby monitors that were not made by the same company. Even though they had different channels to cut out static, we still could only get one channel to work at a time and therefore, only hear one of the kids at a time. I should mention that we have a 2 year old daughter and a 3 month old son at this time. So we still really need the monitors. We decided to invest in a new monitor, having to buy two so that we wouldn't have the channel issue again. Doing so made our current monitors useless. Well not useless. They could help collect some of the dust in our home and take a load off the piano. But, no, maybe someone else out there is looking for a baby monitor cheap. So I looked on a local website to see if anyone was in need and willing to pay a small amount for the monitor. I ended up getting in contact with a woman that needed a monitor as well as a "baby bumbo". In corresponding with her I learned that she, like us, had a huge need for baby items but lacked the corresponding amount of money. We struck a deal. I would give her the monitors and bumbo that we no longer used and she would give me a sit and stand stroller. No cash exchanged, no check writing, just a simple, yet very fruitful trade for both parties.

The day after this happened, I was up at 4am feeding our son when it hit me. There should be a website that simply trades baby items. Families would save so much money and would be able to clear items out that they didn't need anymore and get the things they did need. I got online and searched. Surely this wasn't an original idea I had. This has to exist in the vast universe that is the internet. I came up with nothing. There was one site in the UK that traded stuff but also sold stuff. Not good enough in my eyes. I wanted a strictly trading baby items site. And thus The Trading Baby was born. I went to Go Daddy, bought myself a domain and a website (for rather cheap I might add) and had it up and running within a couple hours. Then, to get the word out. Family and friends are the best advertisers in the world so I emailed everyone I knew and asked for help in getting The Trading Baby off the ground. I also went to Cafepress and opened a free shop. I created a support page on The Trading Baby that linked to the shop I created and voila, more advertising and a little financial support for the website.

So there. Just by having kids, I've been educated in love, odors, finances, insomnia, physics, creativity, website development, sales, time management, etc, etc, etc. And now, because of my children, I might be able to help 100's of families save a little money and still have what they need. Life is good. A little smelly some times, but good.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Well that missing mojo that has been gone so long has now returned home to me!! I'm thrilled that I'm creating again and it feels soooo good too! Maybe I just needed a break for awhile. I did get that needed push to create too just the other day. I was asked to be the featured artist at The Great Adirondack Soup Co. for the month of July. This is the 2nd time I've displayed there and people can buy the art right off the wall! We'll see how it goes. I also have been asked to sell my art in a new studio that is opening up in the next few weeks so I've been busy getting ready for that too. With all of that happening I will have my art in 3 places locally for the month of July and 2 after that! How cool is that? I'm so excited. When I have more info on the new studio I'll post it here.

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OK the title of this blog is "The Dresses" so let's get on with it! I am finished my little dress series!! I'm thrilled with how they all turned out! I was given a HUGE bag of scraps from my friend who makes the cutest aliens to adopt named Lindsey. That is what sparked this series to begin with. There are 6 altogether and I may make more. I've done them in 6 different languages based on my love of travel and other cultures. To date I've done French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian and English. Here they are! Hope you like them. I intend on selling these at the new studio so I just need to wire the backs and they're all set! Let me know what you think.

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Thanks for stopping by my little blog, I hope you enjoy its content and come back and visit often. I'm an artist on a creative journey, I'm constantly in the state of flutter when it comes to creating. I CRAVE creativity and art. I am addicted to Flickr & Etsy and love seeing what other artists out there are doing. Please feel free to show some love, and also some creative criticism because it's good to have the balance of both. I look forward to hearing from many of you! Thanks for dropping in!